Count the Pretty Spiders
by miss selah
Summary: A web spun like silk is impossible to see. . . until you're already in it.::Discontinued::
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

She was not crying. Even as she thought it, the tears threatened painfully, burning, unfamiliar, Kagome was much to proud to admit that she wanted to cry when the only one who should be crying right now was Sango.

Kohaku was dead. Kagome wiped her eyes, and the tears that had managed to gather there were flung from her face in to a dark oblivion before they ever had the chance to fall. Words couldn't describe what she felt. _Betrayed. . . hurt. . . like a rock had painfully managed to lodge itself in her throat. . ._ she shook her head and watched Sango hold her dead brother's body. _How must it feel,_ Kagome wondered, _to be the only one left?_

Kagome would think later that she had been foolish. They _all_ were the only ones of there kind. The last surviving demon slayer from her village, Sango was a work of art. Beautiful enough to shame the most trained of Geisha, and strong enough to save the world alone. But she wasn't alone. Not with the rest of them.

Shippo, the orphaned Kitsune. Parents murdered, Shippo, even at the young age of nine, still managed to be the most adult out of all of them, making Kagome often wonder about is age.

Miroku, the cursed monk. He wasn't born cursed, but he couldn't remember a time when he wasn't. He couldn't remember when he didn't feel the hell hole tearing at his arm from the inside, begging to be released. Begging to _eat him alive. . ._

Inuyasha- the demon half breed. Now _that_ was one fine one of a kind specimen, Kagome would think with an appreciative nodd. Born in a world where he was shuned for his birthright, he had all of the powers of a demon and the life span of a human. He had once told her that he thought life was a cruel joke for humans. They were put on this planet just long enough to find what they wanted, but not long enough to obtain it. But Kagome thought that he had the crueler fate. Not only did he only have enough time to find what he wanted, he would be able to look back on his younger days as an old man of sixty, and know that if he had been smarter, he had the power to obtain his goals then.

And then there was her. The time-traveling, jewel shard detecting, all around super miko Kagome Higurashi. She supposed, if she thought about it out of her own perceptive, she would have seen that while she was worrying about everyone else, she was actually the one who was the most alone. In this time, she was shunned for things she would be praised for in her own time, her worth determined by her status.

"Kagome?" Shippo asked as he came over and touched her hand reverantly. "Are you alright?"

Kagome smiled. Shippo's tiny clawed hands fit just inside of her palm, the nails frigid and damp from the snow that had gathered beneath them. She nodded. "Of course I am fine, Shippo. Sango is the one who lost her brother, not me."

Shippo nodded. "Yes, but you so recently lost your grandfather. . . I can imagine that it is difficult for you to be here, watching her mourn when you aren't mourning properly yourself."

Kagome shook her head and watched Sango's shoulders quiver twice beneath her thick cotton kimono. "No, Shippo. I'm fine. For now, at least. I'll cry for him later though. I promise."

_And when is later. . ._ The words rung in silence between the two of them. Inuyasha turned to face Kagome, his ears having picked up hers and Shippo's conversation.

"Kagome. . . I know that I push you hard a lot, but I don't understand why you stayed here instead of going to your grandfathers funeral. I mean, you're always going for your tests, but he was your grandfather. Shouldn't you have gone to see him be buried?" Inuyasha asked, kneeling besides her.

Kagome shook her head. "No. . . I wouldn't have been able to do it. . . I wouldn't have been able to sit there and watch them bury him. . ."

Shippo patted Kagome's hand. "We bury people all the time, Kagome. What would they differnce be?"

Kagome shook her head. "He was my _grandfather._ He was annonying, but he was only _sixty._ He should have lived longer."

Inuyasha took her hand in his and squeezed it reassuringly. "Kagome. . . you need to go home. Your family needs you right now more than we do. There is only one jewel shard left. . . and _nobody_ seems to know where it is. . . why don't you just go home until we pick up a rumor. Then you can confirm it for us."

Kagome smiled and stood. "No, Inuyasha. I think I should stay. You guys need me too."

Inuyasha growled. "You're just being a coward, Kagome! You need to quite avoiding the facts, and face it! Yur grandfather is dead! Being here, where he's not even _alive_ yet, won't change it! Your family needs you, and where are you? Here, when you should be there."

Kagome felt her eyes begin to swell with tears, but she wouldn't allow him to make her cry. Not when her own grandfather's death hadn't brought tears to her eyes. Not when she sat her, watching Sango cling to her dead brother's lifeless body in agony had not made her cry. She stood quietly, passively, and motioned for Kirere.

Kirere lifted her head from her master's knee and bounded over, transforming in a flash of fire as she did so. Kagome smiled. She could always count on Kirere, if no one else. "Kirere, will you take me home?" She asked, petting the fire cat's muzzle affectionately as she did so.

Kirere mewled and knelt, so that Kagome could gain access to her back. "Thank you, Kirere." Kagome said, not giving Inuyasha a backwards glance.

When Kagome walked in to her house, so late that night that the moon was nearly setting, making way for the rising sun, she hadn't expected anyone to still be up. But there her mother was, tapping away at a calculator as she shook her head and dried her eyes. Looking around her, Kagome saw a half emptied pot of coffee, indicating that Sasha Higurashi had truly needed to get her work done. Her mother _hated_ coffee, and only drank it when it was absolutely necessary to remain awake. She said the taste was bitter and strong. . . much too strong for Sasha, who preferred to drink lightly flavored fruit drinks.

"Mama. . ." Kagome whispered as she took her first step in to the kitchen, flipping on anoter light as he went. It was too dark in here to do anything. "I'm home."

Kon Loon Higurashi looked up from her work with a tiny smile playing on her lips. "Thank god. . . I worry so much about you when you're in the past. . ."

Kagome nodded and hugged her mother. "I know, mama. I know." She said, rubbing her mother's hair as if _she_ was the child, instead of the other way around. "What are you doing, this late at night?"

Kon made Kagome let go of her as she gathered a few papers, as if she had forgotten them. "Oh. . . I'm just trying to figure out how I am going to be able to keep this shrine afloat. . . you're grandfather was the one who always ran the businesses, and I worked the finances, so now that he's gone, I have to do both. And with the expenses of the funeral. . ." Sasha said as she shook her head. "I am in deep." She said with a sigh as she shut off the calculator and rubbed the bridge of her nose, as if deep in thought.

"Mama. . ." Kagome said mournfully. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help. . . I _should_ have been there to help."

Kon waved her hand. "Don't be ridiculus. You have your own things to do in the past. We need you to save the world, you know."

Kagome grabbed her mother's hand out of the air. "Mama. . . don't do this. I should have been here, and from now on, I will be." She said, twisting her mother's hand so that her pinky stuck out and grabbing it with her own.

Kon pulled her hand from her daughter's. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Kagome. You know as well as I do that your new life is in the past . . . with that cute doggie friend of yours, Inuyasha. _They're_ your family as much as I am."

"Yes mama. . . but you were my family first. And Inuyasha understands. Besides, ther's only one jewel shard left. Once the search is over, I can come back here and help you full time." Kagome said, guiding her mother from the chair and up the stairs to put her to bed.

Kon shook her head tiredly, and Kagome felt the urge to cry swell up in her again. She had never really thought of her mother as old. . . at thirty eight, she was reletively young for a mother of two. But now, as Kagome lead her up the stairs, Kagome thought that she looked every year of her life and more. Lines of worry shaded her eyes, and Kagome felt a little more grown up herself.

At the top of the flight of staris, Kon turned to face her daughter, her expression sober. "Kagome. . ." she began with a frown.

Kagome held up her hand to stop her. "Don't argue with me, mamma. I get too much of that from Inuyasha. We'll find a way. I know we will." She said, heading back down the stairs to finish whatever it wa her mother had been working on. "Go to sleep now. I'll be up in a little while."

Kon frowned, but nodded, none the less. "Alright. . . but hurry up and go to sleep. You have school in the morning." She said as she slowly shuffled to her bedroom.

Kagome smiled. _Her mother had always wanted the best for her children. But then,_she thought with a shake of her head,_ most mothers did._

Kagome stared at the papers on the table with exhaustion. How her mother managed to do this, take care of the shrine _and_ Souta was beyond her. Kagome leafed through the papers, the math equations running through her head as she computed the average annual expenses for the care and up keep of the shrine. Kagome groaned. No _wonder_ her mother was up this late, working on it. The math problem always ended with one answer- they had to sell the shrine.

Kagome shook her head as she sat down at the table, pulling a sharpened pencil out of the jar they kept them in. _That wasn't going to happen._ The shrine had been in their family for generations- no, longer than that. The shrine- the well, the grounds, all of it, had belonged to them before the shrine even stood. It was Kagome's link to the past she knew she would soon have to leave. It was her home, and selling it was not an option.

Pouring herself a cup of coffee, Kagome began from scratch, trying to see what they could sell or do to make it so that they would have enough money when tax time rolled around.

And that was how Souta found her in the morning- sitting at the table, tapping away at the calculator in the dim light, just as she had found her mother.

"Morning sis. I didn't know you were back. Did you get in last night?" He asked as he grabbed a bowl to make himself breakfast.

Kagome nodded and kept working in silence, the only noise the keys on the calculator clicking.

Souta sat down at the table with his cerel and looked over shoulder. "Are you doing homework?" He asked when he saw the complicated equations in her hand writing.

"No" Kagome answered as she layed the calculator down, grinning. "I just figured out how we can keep the shrine!" She said with a smile as she hugged Souta.

Kon wandered in a moment later, blinking in disbelief. "How? What did I miss?" She asked as she hurried over, leafing through the papers Kagome had rewritten. "My god! You _are_ good at this stuff!" She said with a smile. "Yes. . . if we were to use some of the old buildings in the back instead of public storage. . ." Kon looked down the paper, frowning. "But Kagome. . . I won't be able to do this all by myself." She said with a frown. "I'm sorry. It was a great plan, but I only ave two hands."

Kagome lifted her own. "I'm going to quite high school and help you. We can keep this place afloat if we really try. It's just-"

"No." Kon said, handing her the papers again. "We'll find some other way, but you are going to stay in school. You've been through _three years _of missing it, and you are _still_ in the top fifty students at your school. You've wroked too hard to quit when you are this close to graduation."

Kagome shook her head. "Mama. . . I have one year left. One year. That could be the diffrence between the shrine clsoing and it succeeding. But you can't do it alone."

Kon shrugged. "If it comes to it, I can manage. But. . ." she said as she eyed the formulas again. "Maybe we should try to hire someone. . . like a preist."

Kagome shook her head. "I tried to fit it in to the equation. . . we have no extra money."

Kon frowned. "What about if we offer room and board in exchange for part time services? Then we are only out the money it takes to feed 'em, and we can still have the help."

Kagome frowned. "But who would come in for a job that doesn't pay?"

Souta shrugged. "College students?"

Kon and Kagome both blinked at him. "He's right." Kagome said quietly. "Half of college expenses _are_ room and board, so if we were to stick up some flyers around the college campuses near by. . ." Kagome was silent for a moment. "It just might work!"

Kon patted her son on the head. "For that, you don't have to do the dishes today."

Souta grinned. "Sounds like a fair trade to me!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_Oh sure, Souta has great plans! _Kagome thought, able to hear the sarcasm of her own thought. _Of course,_ Kagome thought as she wandered the university of Tokyo in a slight depression, _Souta's plan would only work if one of the Universities would actually allow her to hang flyers up. . ._ Kagome sat down on the stairs in the front of the university with a whoosh of air and sighed. She had been to four universities that day- _fou_r – and each of them had told her that she was not allowed to hang flyers if she was not a student there. She had considered lying. . . but after she had at the last college, and they asked who her teachers were, she decided against trying again.

"I knew it was hopeless!" Kagome sighed as she dropped the flyers in the trash, groaning when the wind picked up a few of them and sent them flying right back out.

Kagome quickly grabbed two of them- the wind had settled and made it easy for her- but as she was reaching for the third one, the wind picked it up again an carried it high above her head, snagging it on an overhead tree branch.

Kagome threw away the two papers she had managed to grab before staring at the third. She couldn't climb the tree. . . she was in a dress and might get kicked off campus for indecent exposure! She stood on her tiptoes and reached for it, but was about half a foot too short. She sighed and made a jump for it, her fingertips grazing it the first jump, missing it completely the second.

She knew that she was making a fool of herself, but the chuckle that came in from behind her caught her totally off guard.

"It looks like you could use a hand." Kagome froze, her heart skipping a beat (or ten!) when she recognized the voice. It was sultry and slow, and could easily be matched to a guranteed heartbreaker. But Kagome knew better. Kagome knew that the owner of the voice didn't only _break_ hearts. . . he _dismembered_ them. Along with the body, the soul, etc. The only question, Kagome thought as she slowly turned to face the man that owned the voice that haunted her dreams, was what was he doing here?

He smiled first. "Hello. My name is Mutsumoto Kogajiin. Would you like some help?" He asked, reaching for it on tip toes and pulling it down before she could answer.

Kagome shivered. _It wasn't him. . . it just_ looked _like him, and sounded like him, and. . . that didn't mean that it_ was _him. _Kogajiin. It was an interesting name, and it matched an interesting body. He had the figure of Naraku. . . the face structure, the same dark brown hair, only cut to fall in wavy curls around his face. He was tall- a head taller than Kagome. But he wore modern clothes, dressed as a student, and if he hadn't spoken, despite how much he resembled Naraku, Kagome probably wouldn't have noticed him. He was handsome, yes, but he didn't catch your eyes. Instead, if he was standing by a wall, or in the shadows, your eyes were very likely to just pass over him.

Kogajiin looked over the paper with a smile. "You need a shrine caretaker?" He asked, not looking at her face. "Well, as it so happens, my grandfather owns a shrine in Kyoto and I was raised on it, so I know a lot about caring for one." He looked up at her, saw her face for the first time, and froze.

Kagome saw recognition flash behind his eyes- eyes that were the same color as Naraku's. . . a deep mahogony, very nearly red. She knew what shown in hers. . . fear. A deep fear that had begun almost five hundred years ago.

But then, just as quickly as the recognition had appeared, it was gone, and Kogajiin's eyes held nothing but humor. "Which shrine do you live at?" He asked, his eyes smiling more than his lips.

Kagome shuddred, and beat down the urge to run away. She quickly debated with herself on whether or not she should run, scream, or pretend to not recognize him. After all, Naraku had no idea that she was a time traveler.

Kagoem quickly shook her head, oblivious to the confused look Kogajiin gave her. She was being ridiculus! Naraku didn't exist here. . . the world would have been orver run by power hungry demons if he did! And even if by some odd chance that Naraku _was_ in the future, there was no way that he would have been able to put up with the evils of the school system.

Right?

Chasting herself for being foolish Kagome reminded herself that her family needed a new shrine keeper, and that Kogajiin had experience. She probably wouldn't get anyother chance like this one, and she couldn't let a little arachnephobia get the best of her!

Smiling, she answered. "My name is Kagome Higurashi and I live at the Higurashi shrine."

Kogajiin nodded, and relief seemed to flood his features. "Kagome. . ." He said quietly, taking her hand. "Pleased to meet you! Kogajiin." He frowned. "Oh, but I already told you that." Shaking his head, he began to walk, still holding her hand. "Anyways, I've lived on the school grounds, but it's really expensive. And I have a part time job, but it barely covers the tuition, and it doesn't even come close to covering my books."

Kagome tried in vain to pull her hand away from his, but when he didn't release her after the first few hard tugs, she gave up and let the over – eager boy lead her around.

Suddenly, Kogajiin stopped in his tracks and Kagome began to panic. _When he turn around, will he recognize me?_ She wondered in slight fear. _What if he already knew who I was and wants to kill me!?_ Looking around to where he had lead her, Kagome was surprised that they were now in a small alcove off to the side of the main court yard – and she couldn't see another person anywhere!

"Kagome. . ." Kogajiin whispered quietly. Kagome froze and turned to face him, hoping that all traces of fear had been wiped from her eyes.

"Yes, Kogajiin?" She asked with a tiny, forced smile.

"How much does this gig pay?" He asked with a wry smile, and Kagome almost fainted in relief. _See!?_ She told herself with a smug inner grin. _Naraku would never, ever use words like gig! You've just spent far too much time in the past and need a break! You've got Naraku on the mind, and the next thing you know you're gonna start seeing Miroku asking your friends to bear his children!_ She thought, unable to keep the humor from her face. Her watcher, however, hadn't seemed to notice her odd behavior.

"I'm afraid it doesn't pay anything." She said with a frown, suddenly unexplainably afraid that he wouldn't take the job offer. "But you do get free board, food, and you can still have another job, if you can fit all your chores in for the shrine and more work." Kagome said, hoping that she had lured him back in to wanting the job.

Kogajiin frowned, and for some reason, Kagome felt that he was scrutinizing her. But when she could find no reason that he would be studying her, she decided that it was just her imagination acting up again.

"Hmm. . . well, as it is I have to pay board and I almost never eat. . ." Kogajiin suddenly looked as though someone had just offered him a million dollars. "Say! I'll make you a deal! You cook one meal for me and if I think it's good I'll accept the job offer!" He said, holding out his hand to shake and seal the agreement.

Kagome smiled with worry, holding out her hands. A task he made difficult, as he still hadn't released her. "Me?" She asked, remembering the last time she had tried to make Inuyasha a picnic. Remembering that his favorite part of it had been the pickles. "Cook?" She nearly choked on the word.

"Yeah." Kogajiin said, leaning in to capture her other hand. Kagome felt her heart jump. At this close proximity, she had to tilt her head far back to be able to hold his eyes. "I'll bet you're great at cooking." Turning her palms to face his hands, he match them with his own. "What do you say?"

Kagome blushed and pulled her hands away. "I say that you're probably just some college student trying to get a free meal out of me." She said, stuffing her hands behind her before he could capture them again.

Kogajiin smiled. "Yeah. . . maybe you're right. How about this – I'll buy the ingredients. That way, if you are a really bad cook, you're only out the hour or so it took to make the food." Smiling, he reached behind her and took her hand again. "Wadda say?" He asked.

Kagome resisted the urge to tell the Naraku look-a-like to go to hell. She couldn't figure out why, but every time he touched her she started to itch all over her body. She thought about his proposal, though.

It did sound fair. . . and he really was just trying to assure her that he was seriously considering taking up the job. The job, Kagome reminded herself, that her family need to have filled if they wanted to keep living in the same lifestyle that they always had.

"Alright." Kagome said.

Kogajiin nodded. "Great! Why don't we go shopping now?" He suggested.

"Now!" Kagome barked when he began to drag her along behind him again. "But. . . but. . . don't you have like, a class or something that you're supposed to be at?"

Kogajiin shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. . . but I haven't ever really been absent, so my teachers wont mind if a miss a class or so. Plus, taking a pretty lady like you shopping sure beats taking lecture notes!" He turned and smiled at her. Opening his eyes, he stared at her from eyes that seemed to glow in the shade of his bangs. "Why, do you have some where to go?" He asked in a voice that reminded her all too much of Naraku.

Kagome shivered, and was afraid that if she turned him down he might turn on her and kill her. "No, of course not. I'm free if you are!" She said, wanting to kick herself as soon as the words left her mouth. She _did_ have better things to do. She could go home and study, go to the past and try to find out where the last jewel shard was, find someone, _anyone_ else to take the job . . .

Wrapping one arm around he shoulder, Kogajiin released his grip on her hadn and smiled down at her. "Good. . ." he whispered in a husky voice that nearly made Kagome trip over her own feet. _My god!_ She thought, placing her hands over her stomach in an attempt to stop the butterflies that had gathered there. _Where in the world had that feeling come from!?_ She demanded of herself.

"Come on, Kagome. If we hurry up, maybe we can catch the four o'clock train to the supermarket!" Kogajiin said, ushering her along at nearly a run.

Kagome smiled and pressed a closed fist to her lips to hide it. She couldn't figure out why, but when he flashed her that grin she couldn't help but think that everything else that she should have been doing right then wasn't as important as she had made them out to be in her mind. . .


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three **

Kagome walked down the aisles of the supermarket, staring ahead at Kogajiin, finding it hard to believe that he was older than she was. Hell, she would have had a hard time believing that _Souta_ was younger than he was. Never, in her entire life, had she seen someone act like. . . like. . . _this_ in a public place, let alone a place as crowded as a super market!

At least, not if they were over the age of _two. . ._

Kogajiin was racing down the aisles, grabbing random things off of the shelves and staring at them. Most of the time he threw them (literally) back on the shelves before Kagome could catch up with him – she felt like walking, and he could just deal with that – but occasionally, he would deem something necessary to Kagome's meal and throw it in to the cart, doing a victory dance when he made it in at sporadic moments.

Kagome suppressed the surprisingly powerful need to smack him over the head and tell him that he had to hold on to the cart. How she had ever thought that this could have possibly been Naraku was beyond her.

As if he sensed her frustration, Kogajiin suddenly stopped and turned to her, flashing her a million dollar smile.

Kagome couldn't help it. She smiled back, just as warmly. _Wow. . ._ she thought to herself. _If I hadn't met Kogajiin today, I probably would have never imagined Naraku smiling at me!_

But then, she did.

_She imagined what Naraku would look like, standing over her friend's and family's dismembered corpses, licking their blood from his fingers. And he would smile at her, coldly, before gesturing for her to come over so that he could do the same to her. . ._

Kogajiin was gesturing for her to come over.

Kagome shook her head and smiled at him, shaking the thoughts of Naraku from her mind. _This isn't Naraku!_ She thought with a shake of her head. "Kogajiin." Kagome said his name with a smile.

Kogajiin took two slow steps towards her, meeting her half way across the aisle. "Sorry I keep throwing food in to the cart. Everything just looks so good!" He answered the question she hadn't even asked with a boyish grin, and they began walking again. "I suppose I should ask you what you're planning on making, though."

Kagome pressed her fingers to her lips and stared ahead. She frowned when she caught sight of a box of ramen. Inuyasha came to mind, and for a split second she tried to imagine that he was here with her.

She could picture it. Oh yes, that part wasn't hard at all. But the image that came to mind was not one she would have enjoyed. No, when she tried to imagine Inuyasha shopping with her, she imagined him harrassing employees, sniffing and degrading all of her favorite food items, and eating uncooked ramen whenever he saw it, leavig her to pay for the food. Her mood was not lightened in the slightest.

"Kagome?" Kogajiin asked, walking slowly up to the opposite end of the cart with an expression of concern on his face. "What's that look on your face for?" he asked, leaning in a touching her chin, running his thumb up her cheek. "Smile." He commanded of her in a heavy voice that sounded much more like the Naraku she had thought him to be.

Kagome obeyed quickly, banishing the unwarranted thought from her mind before she had the chance to dwell on it. "Oh, it's nothing. I was just trying to imagine my. . . _boyfriend_ shopping with me." Kagome said, lacking a better title for what Inuyasha was to her.

Almost immediately the expression on Kogajiin's face darkened. But it was light again so fast Kagome knew that she must have been imagining it. "So, I'm guessing that he's not the kind of person who likes to go shopping?" he asked, pulling the cart along with him when he began to walk again, making _Kagome _hold on to the cart, as she had been thinking of making him do.

But Kagome hadn't noticed. She was recalling the time she took him to the mall to help her pick out a dress. "No. He is absolutely _not_ the shopping kind." Well, if that wasn't an understatement. The sales lady had been all over him, causing Kagome severe bouts of jealousy. And all Inuyasha could do was pant because her perfume had been too strong for his nose, giving the sales lady the impression he _really_ liked her.

It was not an experience Kagome would have cared to repeat.

Kogajiin grinned. "I'm sorry to hear that. But you still haven't told me what you're planning on making."

Kagome bit the inside of her lip and caught sight of some Mahi – Mahi. Now _that_ she could make well, especially over an open fire. She grabbed the frozen fish and held it out to inspect it. "How about some fish?" She asked, showing him the package.

Kogajiin picked it up and frowned. "What are you gonna make with this?" He asked, skeptical of the fish. "Are you gonna fry it or microwave it?"

Kagome shock her head, understanding the point he was making. Her mother had microwaved Mahi – Mahi once, and it hadn't stopped popping for nearly ten minutes, and at that point in time, the fish had been cold again. "No, I was going to cook it over a. . ." she ouldn;t very well say open fire without him asking her where she learned to cook in such an odd manner, and she was in no mood to create an eloborate lie. "Grill." Kagome said, wondering if they even had a grill at her house.

Kogajiin made a sound that sounded a lot like a hmm. . . "Well, you're the cook." He said, voice dripping with displeasure.

Kagome frowned. "Don't you like fish?" she asked.

Kogajiin shrugged. "I don't _not_ like it. . . I just haven't ever had good fish before." Frowning, he seemed to be recalling something. "And one of my old. . . _friends_. . . gave me food poisoning with it intentionally."

Kagome's brows drew together in confusion. "Why would someone intentionally give you food poisoning?" She asked.

Kogajiin frowned for only a moment longer, as if recalling the unpleasant memory, before he flashed her another smile and waved her question away with a flick of his hand. "Oh, never mind that. It's a _long_ story." Kogajiin's smile and eyes softened, making Kagome wonder how in the world she had compared him to Naraku. "Maybe someday I'll tell it to you. . ." He said in a soft, hopeful voice that made Kagome want to rub her hands over her arms.

Kagome smiled. He was talking like he had already decided that he was going to be staying with them! She put the fish back. "Umm. . . okay, no fish. How about. . . steaks?" Kagome asked, picking up a package of four slabs of the red meat.

Kogajiin grinned a boyish grin that assured her that he was absolutely _not_ Naraku. Naraku would never, _ever_ flash her a boyish grin. "Woman, _now_ you're speaking my language!"

The walk to the shrine was uneventful, and as the evening was dawning, Kagome lay the bags down on the smooth marble tile of her kitchen. Turning on the tap to warm, Kagome rolled up her sleeves and turned to Kogajiin. "I'm gonna cook you the best steak you've ever had in your life." She assured him with a smile. "But while it's cooking, why don't you show yourself around the shrine grounds?"

Kogajiin frowned. "Are you sure you don't want any help with that?" He asked her, unbuttoning the button on his sleeve that prevented him from rolling them up. "I'm pretty handy in the kitchen."

Kagome shook her head. "No, I'm supposed to cook for you."

Kogajiin smiled. "But everyone knows _women_ can't grill!" he teased.

Kagome feigned extreme displeasure. "That was rude and uncalled for, but now I have to prove you wrong. Go take a look around. After all, once you've tasted _my_ cooking, you're never gonna leave us." Kagome assured him with a smile.

Kogajiin grinned. "Well, with an attitude like that. . ." he muttered, before open the side kitchen door. "I guess I'll look around. . . even though I'll never see it again!"

Kagome turned around, turning off the taps as she did, prepared to give him a piece of her mind, but he had shut the door quickly behind him, making sure that she could have no come backs.

Kagome cocked her hips and fisted her hands on them. "Well, we'll just see who has the last word!" She said with a brisk nodd of her head before slicing in to the meats, grinning. "He's never had a natural cooked steak over an open fire!"

Kogajiin strode the shrine grounds, carefully inspecting everything with a smile. He didn't _really_ care if Kagome was a good cook – although he had no doubts about her culinary skills. He would stay. After all, they really were offering him a good deal, and besides, he missed being surrounded by so many trees.

He hadn't been lying when he said that he had been raised on a shrine. He really was a country boy at heart, and had only come to Tokyo for the university opperutinity his grandfather had worked so hard to obtain for him. Though he hadn't wanted to replace the grass for concrete, the open skies for smog, the trees for skyscrapers, he had journeyed to Tokyo because his grandfather had worked so hard to earn it for him. So that he could have the life that his grandfather had ever had the chance to have.

He slowed before the giant _Goshinboku_ and took a light bow in honor of the ancient tree. He wondered what his grandfather would think, knowing that he was back on a shrine. Knowing that his grandfather had always hoped for him to be something fast and modern, he had been sorely disappointed when his gradnson, like his father before him, had, even at a young age, shown interest only in the preservation of religious history, particuluarly that of the feudal era of Japan. His grandfather, hoping to cultivate Kogajiin's love for the past in to something not related to the shrine, had enrolled him in many programs – martial arts, archeology for kids, and the like. But still – the only thing that had ever truly interested him was the keeping of the history. When his grandfather, growing tired and old, had asked him if he would have been interested in being a historian, Kogajiin scoffed at the notion, and promptly informed his gandfather that "Historians only claim to be open to the knowledge of the past. But I know otherwise. They would never accept that they were wrong about so many things." His grandfather had shook his head, ad it was that day that he had admitted defeat, and agreed to sign the shrine over to his grandson's care, rather than the city's, once he had passed away. Of course. . . as often was the case, there had been a price. Kogajiin had to go to Tokyo – a city that he had sworn as the enemy to all small towns – and pass a history class. "Just to broaden how _you_ see the past." His gradnfather had said. But Kogajiin knew the truth. His grandfather had never accepted what Kogajiin had been sure was the truth.

The wind changed and blew a tiny leaf from the tree past his face and he beamed up at the tree, trying to imaging everything it had seen. Everything that it would see. He stayed for only a few heartbeats longer than most people would have before he continued on.

From far behind him, Kogajiin could hear the faint crackle of fire. Somehow, it hadn't surprised him that she would have insisted on cooking the steaks over an open flame. He was sure that her cooking wouldn't disappoint.

A flash of silver to his right caught his eye, and he was instantly homesick when he saw a tiny well house to the side, a fat cat sitting before the doors with an annoyed look on it's face.

Kogajiin, ever the animal lover, walked up to the cat and scratched it's ears, reaching for the collar tag that had caught his eye. "Buyo, huh?" Kogajiin asked, not expecting an answer. "My name is Kogajiin, and I suppose I'll be around for a while." Kogajiin smiled at the irony of telling this to a _cat._

"Meow." Was Buyo's response, before he sat up on his hind legs, which Kogajiin was sure was a feat for the obese feline, and scratched twice at the well house door.

Kogajiin studided the door, taking notice of the many gauges in the door, indicating that the cat had done this often. "You want in there, kitty – cat?" Kogajiin asked as he stood from his kneeling position and slowly slide open the door.

"Meow." The cat seemed to say in thanks before it ran inside. It stopped half way down a filght of stairs and turned back to Kogajiin, as if expecting him to follow.

With a wry smirk, Kogajiin consented. "Alright, Kit – Cat, but I'll only go down there for a second. I've had enough of wells to last me a life time."

Kagome finished cooking with a satisfied expression on her face. "Just wait until that Kogajiin gets a bite of this!" she said with a smirk, looking around the back yard where she had been cooking for him. "I wonder where Kogajiin is. . ." she mummered to herself before going in search of the boy. "I know I told him that he could tour the grounds. . ." she said, wondering why he wasn't back yet.

"Kogajiin!" She called out when she reached the front of the two story shrine house. "Kogajiin!"

"I'm in the well house!" Came a distant cry. Kagome paled as she realized the implications of his location. She hurried along the shrine grounds, past the ancient god tree, and threw open the well house doors, gasping for breath and imagining all of the worst possibilities.

What she found, though, was Kogajiin staring down the dry well with a frown.

Kagome paled and wondered if Inuyasha had decided to cut her stay with her family short and had appeared to take her back to his time period. A time period, she was beginning to fear, that she would soon consider her own. "What are you staring at?" She asked.

Kogajiin looked up from the well for only a moment. "Oh, your cat, Buyo, jumped down there. I was thinking about climbing down that ladder there, but I didn't know how old it was and thought I should just wait for you to come."

Kagome felt her heart begin to slow, grateful that he hadn't decided to be a little more courageous and a whole lot dumber by climbing down the bone eaters well to rescue her cat. Still. . .

"Oh, Buyo goes down there all the time. Don't worry about him. He'll manage to climb his way up soon enough." She lied through her teeth with a smile on her face, hoping that he hadn't found her out.

Kogajiin smiled, seeming to take her answer as more than what it really was. In the faint darkness, his face had an omninious glow about it, reminding her of a certain villian she knew only too well.

She shook her head quickly, chastising herself for being paranoid. Naraku couldn't reach her in this day and age – if he could, surely he would have done so by now. "The steaks are done." Kagome informed him, beginning to climb back up the flight of stairs.

Kogajiin smiled, stood. "Already? Hmm. . . makes me wonder how safe these steaks are to eat." He teased again, only giving one more look to the well. When he turned to face her again, he had a look of confusion, as if he had a piece of information and he wasn't sure on exactly what to do with it.

Kagome froze, her fears renewed. "What's that look for?" She asked, wary of the well that had caused her so much trouble.

Kogajiin shook his head. "Oh, nothing. I just was wondering if Buyo was really going to be okay. . ."

Kagome smiled. "Animal lover?"

Kogajiin pointed his fingers in the shape of a gun at his temple. "You got me pegged already?" He asked. "And I don't know anything about you." He said in a voice that told her that he knew more than he should. And for some reason, Kagome didn't doubt it. It was obvious, right from the get – go, that Kogajiin was the type of person that never let a single detail escape him, and always applied the information he collected to practical use.

Like finding out everyone's dirty little secrets. . .

Or weak points that he could exploit at any moment, making anyone he pleased a pawn that had no choice but to do his bidding.

Kagome forced herself to stop relating him to her arch nemisis and smiled, stepping in to the twlight. "What do you want to know?" She asked.

Kogajiin shook his head. "No, I think I'll take the long way trying to figure you out."

Kagome turned to face him, unsure of what he meant. She was surprised that he was looking at her with soft eyes, like a mother might look at a child. As a lover may look at their love.

_Or a spider might look at it's prey. . ._

The though came unbidden in to Kagome's mind, and she shivered.

"Cold?" Kogajiin asked, offering her his coat.

Kagome nodded and accepted, and he lead her back to the house.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Kogajiin clapped his hands together in appreciation, finishing his meal with a lick of his lips to remove any flavor that had gathered there. "Yup. You were right." Kogajiin assured her with a joyous sigh. "I'm never gonna leave you again." He said. His face was still facing his plate, and he hadn't bothered to lift it when he spoke to her, only lifting his eyes to meet hers.

The glance sent unwanted chills up Kagome's back, making her question her fidelity towards her beloved Inuyasha.

"Was it really that good?" Kagome asked, proud that her voice hadn't shaken in the slightest, despite her heart beat. He had eaten, alright. . . and stared at her the entire time, as if he knew that she would taste better.

Kagome shook her head. Of course he hadn't been looking at her that way! She assured herself. She was just on a hormonal high from being around far to many hot people. There was Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, Miroku, and, though she was loath to admit it, Naraku. For an evil villian, Naraku was rather good looking. She had always though that it was unfair that he hadn't been cursed with an extra limb, or at the very least a wart upon his nose. But no – his outside had never once matched his inside, which was dark, gothic, and sadistic. And now she just had one more man around her that simply _dripped_ with that ever – so – nice testotrone that she simply _adored_!

". . . and if that wasn't a success, I could always use my penis as a pogo stick to get to the moon." Kogajiin said, barely able to keep himself from laughing and ruining the stolen line.

Kagome froze. "Excuse me?" She asked, slightly horrified that she hadn't been paying attention to the conversation.

Kogajiin shrugged. "Patch Adams. Don't you remember when he was talking to the therapist and the therapist wasn't paying attention? He said that line and the therapist didn't even react, because he hadn't heard it." Kogajiin leaned his head on one palm. "I didn't think you were listening to me."

Kagome waved her hand and assured him that she had in fact , been paying close attenion.

Kogajiin smiled. "Then what was I saying?"

Kagome's smile never faultered. "You were. . . complimenting my unsurpassed culinary skills!" She exclaimed, hoping that he hadn't changed the subject.

Kogajiin raised one eyebrow. "Are you sure?" he asked in a voice that told her he already knew the answer.

This time Kagome faultered, cursing every beautiful man that existed for this embarrassment. She tried to recall, but when she asnwered that she was sure, she blushed. Even _she_ had been aware of the high pitched sqeuak that the yes had ended in.

However, rather than embarrassing her as her brother or her grandfather would have, or chasitising her as her mother would have felt compelled to do, he did something that made a tiny warmth fill her from her head to her toes.

He laughed.

He had laughed earlier, Kagome was sure, but those to her were not really laughs. They were certainly sounds of amusement, but this. . .

It was heavy and heady, the sound causing Kagome to smile too. The laugh had layer after layer, like a fine brandy that burned it's way in to her soul. A beautiful sound the likes of which she had never heard, in the past or the present. A sound that she would very much enjoy hearing again.

Kogajiin's laughter slowed to a light chuckle, which he hid behind a single, lightly scarred hand. Kagome stared at the bare skin for a moment, and when Kogajiin saw her attentiveness to the blemished skin, the humor in his face quickly died away and he hid the hand beneath the table.

The sudden movement of the appendage that she had been so entranced by caused Kagome to jump and meet his eye, as if she were a child who had ben caught stealing from a candy store.

Though Kagome tried to hide it, she knew that Kogajiin must have seen the thoughts that passed through her mind flicker across her face. The humor didn't return to Kogajiin's eyes, but he donned a smile that Kagome knew immediately to be fake.

"Shall I do the dishes?" He asked eloquently, in a prime and proper voice that startled Kagome. Where had the formalities come from? She had thought that they had been getting along spectacularly! Had she really seen something so horrible, something that he hadn't wanted anyone to see?

Kagome's worries were banished when she saw that he was standing near her in a slight bow, a napkin over his arm, as if imatating a butler. She shook her head. "No, it's okay. I can do them."

"Nonsense!" Kogajiin said, incesstant. "You cooked, I'll clean." He told her, not giving her a chance to protest as he quickly collected her dirtied dinner ware. He strode purposefully to the kitchen, and with only one complaint directed at the hot water tap, he began to wash the dishes, giving Kagome an oppertuinity she had hoped for all day – the opportunity to study his features throughly.

He was handsome, to say the least. His features looked uncannily familiar, but for fear of summoning the devil himself, Kagome didn't even dare to think _his_ name. His skin was darker than most Japenese – she gave pause and wondered if he had western descendant – and his eyes were an almost inhuman shade of mahogany, only adding to his devilishly handsome good looks. But something was amiss, Kagome knew, and she paid a closer attention to his skin. It took her only a few moments to find what she was looking for, and if it hadn't been for his dark skin she may have never found it. Just like on his hand, his face and neck held faint scar lines – burns, perhaps? – that were nearly undistinguishable from his skin.

Kagome wondered where the scars had come from, but knew from his earlier reaction to her scrutiny that he would be put off by any questioning that had to do with his scarring, unnoticable though it may have been. Instead, she brought up a topic that she knew he would have no objections to – the shrine in which he had grown up on, and the grandfather he seemed to adore.

Kogajiin's face was nearly immediately lit with a kind of love you normally only find gracing the features of a new mother. "Boy, oh boy, I could talk your ear off telling you stories from the shrine." He assured her, never ceasing in his chore.

Kagome braced her back against the counter and pulled herself up, watching him do the dishes. "Well, talk away. I promise, I wont get bored." _After all,_ she thought with a wry smile that he wouldn't have been able to interpertate, _her grandfather had made sure that she could look interested in any story, boring or otherwise. Though she had little doubt that his stories would certainly be fascinating._

Kogajiin grabbed a towel and began to dry off a plate. "Well, my father died when I was just a kid." He said, no sadness in his voice. "And my mother. . . well, she died in child birth." And therein lay the sadness.

Kagome nodded, but didn't offer up any apologies. She, too, had lost her father when she was very young, and apologies only seemed to make matters worse to her. As if they could have done anything to stop the death. . . as if you could have. . . as if anybody could have. . .

"Well, my grandfather took me in and raised me." Kogajiin smiled wistfully and picked up another plate. "He was an old man, and he certainly wasn't the best person to raise a little hellion like me, but he did the best he could, and he always made sure that I had the best." _Even when I didn't want it. . ._ He thought sardonically but didn't say anything else out loud.

Kagome nodded understandingly. "My own grandfather just died. . . he ran the shrine. . ." She was going to explain that was the reason that they had hired him – or were going to, as the case would be. To replace her grandfather. But the look in his eyes when they strayed to her told her that he already knew – and she didn't have to dwell on the subject anymore.

"Anyways. . . our shrine isn't much different from yours – well, in appearances, anyways. Our shrine isn't nearly so mainstreamed as yours is, though." Kogajiin said with a knowing nodd.

Kagome's head cocked to one side of it's own accord. "What do you mean?"

Kogajiin shrugged. "Well, your shrine is in the hustling, bustling metropolis of Tokyo. . . ours is just a tiny little thing on Kyoto that costs more than it's worth. . ." He shook his head as he complained, but he smiled while he did so, showing his affections for the old building through his actions rather than his words.

Kagome could relate. "I have a confession. . ." She began a little bashfully.

Kogajiin's eyes narrowed slightly, once again reminding her of how very much he looked like Naraku. But after a moment of studying her face, his own lightened in to the calm expression that Kagome had come to recognize as the one expression Naraku could never hold. "What's that?" He asked, trapping her against the counter she sat on with an arm on each side of her legs.

Kagome nearly forgot how to speak coherantly when he looked up at her that way, the hairs on his arms brushing intimately against her thighs, his breath against her neck. Kagome felt her skin tingle and she knew if she knelt just a little one way, or a little another way, she would get the body contact that her body seemed to demand of her. And if she were to lean forward just enough. . .

"Kagome?" His voice pulled her out of her own wanton thoughts and she once again cursed the male population. Why in the world had god chosen to create beautiful men?

"Well, up until about three years ago, I didn't think much of our family shrine." Kagome admitted, thinking back to her fifteenth birhtday. They day that had changed her life forever. "In fact, I was just a normal, spoiled little fifteen year old girl who only wanted a boyfriend." She smiled, and remembered her sheer elation when her friends, Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi had informed her that _the_ Hojo of class A had wanted to take her out on a date! Of course, her elation had died soon enough. . . In those days, she hadn't had time to properly take her high school courses, let alone take her courses, save the world from an ancient evil, _and_ try to have a single night of normalcy on a date with average, all-Japenese boy Hojo.

"What made you change your outlook?" Kogajiin asked, leanining in just a little bit more. Kagome's heart rate speed up, and she could hear her own blood rushing past her ears. Staring down in to his eyes, she wondered momentarily why he seemed to crave physical contact. She wondered even longer why she wasn't opposed to it. But the look in his eyes wasn't one of lust, as it would in the eyes of most boys who were so close to her. . . no, the look in his eyes was the same one she had seen earlier when she had first asked him about his grandafther and his shrine. One of compassion, not heated passion.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so I'm not going to tell you." Kagome said with a smile, and a look in her eyes that told him that the subject was not open for discussion.

He obviously never took Body Language 101. He's arms tensed, reminding Kagome of iron bars, and his eyes narrowed again, telling her that she had no choice but to tell him anything and everything he wanted to know. Kagome shuddered, knowing _exactly_ where she had seen that expression before.

"Listen, Naraku, just because I don't want to tell you doesn't mean that you can intimadate me in to giving you any information that you want!" Kagome exclaimed, sliding under his arms and off of the counter, quickly putting distance between herself and the man.

Kogajiin's eyes didn't cease to stare at her with the same intensity, but his face wore an expression of humor. "Who's Naraku?" He asked, obviously pleased that he had gotten the name from her.

Kagome knew she paled visibly. _Had she said his name aloud?_ The answer, of course, was yes. But it couldn't he helped! With his eyes drilling in to her own, his posture demanding submission, he had just reminded her so much of her adversary that in that moment, she hadn't questioned his identity. To her, in that moment, he _had_ been Naraku.

Kagome didn't smile. "I'm sorry. . . you just reminded me of someone that I wouldn't care to remember."

Kogajiin's face sobered, whether in apology or otherwise, she wasn't sure. But she did know that he wouldn't raise the topic again. She was about to turn the conversation to lighter matters when her mother and younger brother walked in to the kitchen.

Kon was the first to acknowledge their guest's presence. "Well, hello there! You must be an applicant. I'm surprised Kagome found anyone so soon." She turned to her daughter. "Don't be rude, Kagome. Introduce him to us." She tld her daughter in a soft chastising voice.

Kagome's face broke out in to a sarcastic smile. "Where _are_ my manners?" She asked, her voice dripping with cynicsism. "Kogajiin, this is my mother, Sasha, and my yonger brother, Souta."

Kogajiin brought a finger to his forehead and dipped his head forward lightly. "Greeting, Higurashi's!" He grabbed Kon Loon Higurashi's hand and gave it a light kiss, looking up at her with enough charm to make a nun shake with repressed sexual need. "It's very obvious where Kagome gets her good looks from." He said, causing the two females to do a mental swoon.

Souta crinkled his nose. "Hey, Kogajiin! That's my mother you're flirting with." He said, clearly disgusted by the fact.

Kogajiin dropped Kon's hand and feigned exhaustperation. "I have no idea what you're talking about! I'm no flirt!" His eyes stole there way to Kagome, and she shuddered a little under there intense scrutiny.

Souta's expression was one of deep thought, and finally, he laughed. "You're just like James Bond!" Souta, immediately taking a liking to the young shrine caretaker, took his hand and lead him towards the living room where the game consoles were and away from the girls. Kagome only caught portions of his rambling. "Do you play James Bond? Do you own any game consoles? You have _that_ many games!? Sweet! Can I borrow it?"

"So, he's the one you picked out, huh?" Kon asked, not taking her eyes of the boys, who had begun to argue about which person got which controller.

Kagome smiled and rubbed the back of her neck. "More like the one that followed me home."

Kogajiin looked up from the living room, feigning insultion. "You make me sound like a dog!" He exclaimed.

Kagome cocked one eyebrow. "Then what are you?"

"Spiderman!" Souta supplied, leaping up in joy.

Kagome paled instantly. "What's wrong?" Kogajiin asked, humor in his voice at a seemingly private joke. "Don't you like Spiderman?" He held up a case that Souta had thrown aside when he inserted the game in to the console.

Kagome shook her head at her own foolishness, and demanded herself to knock it off. She was being ridiculus! This wasn't Naraku! This was an overenthusistic college student, born and raised in Japan, and not only did he reside in this century, he had born born less than two decades ago!

The theme song for Spiderman began to play, a wordless rendition of a not – so – classic. Kogajiin looked back over his shoulder at her, a questioning, cursorary glance, and Kagome gave him a reassuring smile that she was fine.

Kogajiin turned back to the game, and Kagome missed the secret smile that played on his lips.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"Maybe," Kagome offered tentatively hours later when Kogajiin was still playing video games – they had switched to Grand Theft Auto hours ago and were currently cutting down on Vice City's Hooker Population in the worst way – "Kogajiin should be getting back to his dorm?"

Kogajiin turned from his awkward position by the television and gave Kagome a flat look, which, when aided by the flashing blue light emitted from the television, gave his performance a rather eerie effect. "And let your little brother beat me?"

Souta stuck out his tongue, obviously in agreement with Kogajiin. "We're having fun!" He insisted. "Just leave us be."

Kagome sighed, and was about to make the point that Kogajiin (probably) had school in the morning, and that if he didn't get back to his dorm, his room mates would worry about him. . . but then her mother stepped in and sided with the two boys.

"I think that Kogajiin should call his dorm and tell them that he is spending the night." Kon said with a smile.

Kogajiin directed his attention from the television to her. "Thanks, Kon. But Kagome's probably right. I should get going."

Souta sniffed. "But. . . it's raining!" He said, pointing to the ceiling.

Kagome looked out the window. It really was raining. . . and hard. _That's odd. . . _Kagome thought with a frown on her lips and her brow. _The weather report yesterday morning said that it would be sunny all week long._ Partly the reason why Kagome had decided to stay all week.

"How odd." Her mother voiced behind her, obviously noting the same fact that Kagome had. "Well," Her mother began, a thread of determination in her voice, "we can't have you walking out in that rain. You'll catch a cold."

Kogajiin paused the game and stood, looking skeptically out the window and in to the pouring rain. "I don't know. . ." He gave Kon and Kagome a slanted look. "I wouldn't want to impose or anything."

Kagome was about to agree with him. . . offer him an umbrella or to buy his taxi fare back to the dorm. . . but Kon simply smiled and waved his objection aside. "Oh, don't you worry about it. We have Grandfather's room, and you were planning on moving in after all. I don't see the harm in letting you spend the night."

And Kagome couldn't either. Her mom was right – there was no reason why Kogajiin couldn't spend the night. They had already agreed that he was in fact the man they were looking for over dinner. Neither Kon nor Souta could believe their good luck for finding him so soon. Kagome, on the other hand, was trying to identify what the nagging feeling that just wouldn't leave her alone signified.

"Kagome? Did you hear me?" Her mother asked her, ducking her head in to her daughter's line of vision.

Kagome shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. I must have been spacing out."

Souta sniggered. "She does that so often she should be surprised when she isn't spacing out."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "You were saying?"

"Oh, would you be so kind as to show Kogajiin to his room?" Kon asked. "I have to do the laundry, and then straighten up. I'm sure you can handle him."

Kagome sighed. _That made one of them. _Sighing, she turned her attention to the boys. "Are you ready, or are you going to stay out here and play some more video games?"

Kogajiin gave an exaggerated yawn for Souta's sake and stretched his arms high above his head. Kagome pretended that she didn't notice the way his muscles made his University Uniform move in all _sorts _of interesting ways. _Aren't those clothes designed to discourage female attention? _Kagome wondered. _Because if that was the designers goal, they failed miserably! _Thought she was beginning to have the sneaking suspicion that it wasn't the clothes, but they one _wearing_ them.

"I think I'm ready to turn in now." Kogajiin informed her, drawing her attention from his arms to his face. "If that's alright with you, of course?" His voice sounded slightly patronizing, but Kagome chose to ignore it.

Kagome nodded, but frowned when she caught a glance of the clock. _It was barely nine thirty! _"Sure. . . but it isn't really that late. Do you _really _want to go to bed at nine thirty?"

Kogajiin winced. "Nine thirty? I'm normally in bed by nine." He told her, and crossed the room to the door.

Her interest was piked. "Why?" She asked, in a voice that sounded much younger than she.

Kogajiin shrugged. "I sleep _really_ deeply, so if I don't go to bed early, I won't wake up to my alarm clock."

"Oh." Kagome said dumbly, fumbling with the sudden silence. She lead him up the stairs, and tried to think of something to say. Throwing a glance over to where his hand rested on the siding, she found herself questioning once again where he had gotten so many scars.

Kogajiin must have caught her glancing at his hand, for he withdrew it and put it in to his pocket. Kagome looked up, and saw that Kogajiin was staring at her hard enough to burn holes in her skull. "You want to know where I got the scars, huh?" He asked, and turned to face her when they got to the landing of the stairs.

_Obviously he gets asked about them a lot, _Kagome thought, _or else he wouldn't have noticed me looking at them. _And from the way he withdrew his hands from her view, she figured that it was a touchy subject for him. . . And one he probably wouldn't want to discuss with someone he had just met. Kagome shrugged, feigning disinterest. "Not particularly." She lied.

Kogajiin smiled. "Good." He winked at her then, and gave her a sly smile "I wouldn't tell you anyways." He pointed down the hallway and at a closed door before asking, "Is that the bathroom?"

Kagome nodded, letting the subject of the scars rest. She would find out sooner or later and if she didn't, well, it didn't really matter that much. "Umm. . . if you want to take a shower, I can go and get you a towel." She offered.

Kogajiin shook his head. "No, but I think I'll take you up on your offer in the morning."

When Kagome tried to lead him past the bathroom, he slowed. "Do you. . . maybe have an extra toothbrush?" He asked a bit sheepishly.

Kagome frowned. _Do we? _She doubted it. "I dunno. Let me check." She walked in to the bathroom and saw that there were only three toothbrushes, and upon checking he cabinets she found no more.

Kagome frowned and looked at her own toothbrush. _Well, _she thought, picking it up, _I can always just ask mom to pick me up a new one at the store tomorrow. _

"Here." Kagome said, offering her own toothbrush to him.

Kogajiin smiled. "Bunnies?" He asked, looking at the blue and pink designs on the grip.

Kagome frowned and bit the inside of her lip. "I thought it was cute. . ." She said with a pout. _Her brother was always teasing her about little things like that too._

"This is your toothbrush?" Kogajiin asked, shock clearly written on his face.

Kagome frowned. "Well, if it's not good enough for you, you can just go to bed _without_ brushing your teeth. Doesn't really bother me."

"It doesn't bother you that I'm going to be using your toothbrush?" Kogajiin asked, arching one high eyebrow.

"Why should it?" She asked, putting false humor in to her voice.

"Because. . ." Kogajiin began, clearly trying to decide how to word his next sentence. "It's like. . . an indirect kiss."

She blushed hard then. "It is not!" She insisted, even though she was beginning to realize that in a way, it really was.

Kogajiin nodded. "Well, it's touched your mouth – the inside of your mouth, too – and then it would touch my mouth." He put his hands together, trapping the toothbrush between them. "Indirect kiss."

Kagome averted her gaze from his. "Well, I don't mind if you don't." She said, trying to sound tougher than she felt.

Kogajiin shrugged and put some toothpaste on the rather feminine brush. "Whatever." He said before putting it in his mouth.

Though she tried to keep her head pointed away, her gaze had been drawn to him brushing his teeth anyway. _He's just cleaning his teeth. _She kept insisting to herself. _No different than any of the other billion people who are doing the same exact thing. _But that didn't explain why she felt like a voyeur, watching something horribly explicit.

_Indirect kiss. Indirect kiss. Indirect kiss. _

Kagome shook her head, breaking out of her trance when she saw him spit out the paste and rinse off her brush.

Kogajiin dried his face on the soft purple hand towel that was lying near to sink and shook Kagome's toothbrush dry. . . just before he offered it to her.

Kagome stared at it blankly, as if she had no idea what to do with it.

"Here you go. Your turn." Kogajiin said, a challenge in his eyes.

Kagome blushed and held up her hands. "Oh no." She said, backing out of the bathroom. "I should probably be getting you to your room. You know, school in the morning and all that."

Kogajiin shook his head. "I wouldn't dream of denying your dental hygiene just for a few extra minutes of sleep." He said, offering her the toothbrush again. "Unless, of course, you really _are _bothered by the thought of sharing a toothbrush with me." He lay the toothbrush down on the counter with a light _tap_ and withdrew his hand.

_Indirect kiss! _Kagome frowned, but picked up the utensil anyway. _Indirect kiss!_ Her mind insisted once again. Kagome turned on the tap, and pushed Kogajiin aside. "Whatever." She said, using the word he used earlier.

Applying the toothpaste, she wished that the little voice in her head that kept whispering _indirect kiss indirect kiss indirect kiss _would just be shanked. She stared at the toothbrush for only a second before taking a deep breath – much like one does before they are dropped from a really high roller coaster – and she put it in her mouth.

She began to relax after that. It wasn't so bad. No different than it was this morning –

(except it had been in his mouth)

and it was just the same and it didn't _taste _any different –

(except that it _smelled_ like him. . . was that cologne?)

and it was nothing at all like an indirect kiss –

(except for the fact that it _was_)

- at all.

"Finished yet?" Kogajiin asked a bit impatiently, leaning in over her shoulder to reach for the floss.

Kagome groaned and shoved at him with her shoulder. "Quit crowding me!" She commanded through a mouth full of foam.

Kogajiin removed some of the floss and trapped Kagome between his body and the wall. "You should spit before you talk." He chastised lightly before slipping the floss in to his mouth.

Kagome spit and glared at him. "Can you move please? I need to rinse."

Kogajiin tilted his hips a fraction away from her – _technically_ moving, but not really.

Kagome sighed in defeat and leaned down, trying to ignore that fact that if she were to move just _that much_ she would be touching his –

"I think you're all rinsed now." Kogajiin said, tossing her the floss.

Kagome nearly bumped her head on his elbow, but she caught the floss none the less. Pulling out a piece, she walked towards the door, opting to floss in her room. "This way to your bedroom."

In a matter of minutes, Kogajiin was settled in his new room. "Nice room." He said, sitting in the four poster bed that had previously belonged to her grandfather. "Much nicer than that tiny bathroom. How can the three of you share it?"

_It normally doesn't seem that small. . ._ Kagome nearly said, but shrugged a shoulder instead. "We make due." She answered simply. "Good night, Kogajiin." She said, turning towards the door.

"Kagome?" He said in a quiet voice that sent shivers running up and down her spine.

"Yes, Nara – I mean, Kogajiin?" She asked, barely suppressing the need to shiver.

Kogajiin frowned, obviously catching the name she had nearly called him by. "Could you do me a favor?"

Kagome nodded. "What?"

"Could you turn out the lights?" He asked, the same sheepish smile on his face again.

Kagome smiled. "Sure." She said. Turning out the lights and turning back to him, she felt the need to flee. In the dark, his eyes – an already eerie shade of mahogany – glowed red, and the sheepish smile that she had thought so innocent in the light became that of a wolf.

_It's him! _Her subconscious yelled at her, demanding she attack. But logic prevailed – it seemed to be that way more often than not these days – and Kagome ignored the feeling of evil.

"Can you do me another favor?" He asked, his voice seeming to take on all sorts of new layers in the dark.

Kagome nodded, and then realized he probably couldn't see it in the dark. "Sure." She answered, and tried to not worry about the consequences of agreeing with him.

He was quiet for a second, and she knew from the fact that she couldn't see his teeth that he was frowning.

"Kogajiin?" She asked quietly.

"Just. . ." Kogajiin made an almost choked sound. "Just sleep well, alright?"

Kagome smiled. "Alright then."

"No nightmares?" Kogajiin insisted.

"No nightmares." She assured him, and walked out of the dark room in to the darker hallway. "Sleep well, Kogajiin."

And as she lay down to sleep, she couldn't shake the feeling of Déjà vu.

It was a mocking bird that woke her up in the morning. A mocking bird who only knew how to sing in on off beat tone. And it only knew how to mock a car alarm.

Stupid bird.

Kagome walked over to the window and opened it, taking a deep breath of the morning and trying her hardest to ignore the fact that she hated the air that invaded her lungs. It was polluted, and unclean, and though the air of Sengoku Jidai reeked of death and body odor, it _still _tasted cleaner than the poison she was filling her lungs with.

_When I am done in the past, _Kagome thought with a wry smile _I think I'll take up smoking._ At least then she wouldn't think the air was so distasteful. And maybe, eventually, she would get used to it one again.

Maybe.

She began to whistle a tune she had heard on Kill Bill - maybe that godforsaken bird would pick up that tune instead - when a flash of blue light on her left caught her eyes. _No, _she thought with a frown, _it can't be! Inuyasha isn't supposed to come for a few more days! Why is he here __now!? _A stupid question, and she recognized it as such as soon as she thought it. Inuyasha _always _came early for her. . . Why should it be any different this time? But even though she recognized this fact, she still actually felt her heart stop when she saw the rolling door to the well house slide open slowly.

Kagome's first instinct - probably the one that kept telling her that Kogajiin was related to Naraku in more than just features - told her to get Kogajiin out of the house. He resembled Naraku in form, and maybe he smelt like him too. Inuyasha wasn't exactly the densest guy that she knew, but if he were to see and smell Naraku (even if it _wasn't_ Naraku) Inuyasha would go ballistic and Kagome had to consider the safety of her family.

_Don't worry about Kogajiin_, a quiet voice told her. It sounded remarkably like her mother. _He'll be fine. Just worry about getting Inuyasha out of here before he causes a scene._

There was a loud crash downstairs, and Kagome wished that she had thought of the advice sooner. She ran out in to the hallway and rushed down the stairs just in time to see Inuyasha playing Spanish Inquisition with her little brother.

"-but _I'm _telling you that I can smell Naraku all over this place!" Inuyasha screamed at the little boy, not looking up when Kagome came in to the room.

"And _I'm_ telling _you_ that the only people that are here are Kagome and my mom!" Souta insisted right back, in a less than pleased voice. Apparently, hero worship only went so far before annoyance set in.

Surprisingly enough, it was her mother – who had been cooking quietly in the kitchen – who acknowledged her presence first. "Good morning dear. Kogajiin apologized for leaving with out saying good bye to you, but he had to get to school."

Kagome nodded, grateful for the first time that she could remember that school was so demanding of it's students. "Good morning, Inuyasha." She said after giving her mother a nod of acknowledgement.

Inuyasha growled. "No. Not good."

Kagome cocked her head to one side. "Not good?" She asked, feigning confusion. "What isn't good?"

"I can smell Naraku _everywhere._ You and your family aren't safe here." Inuyasha insisted, grabbing Kagome by her arm. "Maybe he was even responsible for your grandfather's death!"

"My grandfather," Kagome began quietly, "died of old age. He died in his sleep." She gave Inuyasha a level look. "Unless Naraku suddenly has the ability to stop hearts, I'm pretty sure my grandfather was just _really _old."

Inuyasha frowned. "But. . . I can smell him!"

Kagome sighed. "And what, pray tell, does Naraku smell like?"

"Like. . . smoke and meat and that bottled stuff you tried to give Miroku that one day." Inuyasha explained.

Kagome remembered back to when Miroku had said that it was his birthday nearly four months earlier. She had brought him back a bottle of Anchor Blue as a present, and Inuyasha had demanded that they get rid of it because it smelled bad.

"Isn't Naraku that terrible man who is out to get Inuyasha?" Kon asked, flipping the frying pan.

Kagome nodded.

"Naraku smells like cheap cologne?" Souta asked, obviously remembering that Kagome had demanded that Souta give her the bottle.

Kagome frowned, ignoring her brother's question. "Listen, Inuyasha. A lot of people wear cologne, and I am sure there is a logical explanation for the smoke and meat smell."

"Bacon?" Kon asked with a smile.

Kagome nodded. "Yeah, bacon puts off the smell of smoke and meat, I suppose." She answered, shaking her head.

"No," Kon said with a smile. "Would you like to have some bacon?"

"Oh." Kagome said. She grabbed a piece of it and held it out to Inuyasha. "Is this what you smell?"

Inuyasha sniffed, and frowned. "It might be." He said.

Kagome chewed a bit of it off before she crossed her arms. "Don't jump to conclusions like that. I thought I had almost had a heart attack when you came in here and started saying Naraku was here."

Inuyasha looked down, like a chastised child. But just as quickly, he was back on defense. "Look! It was an honest mistake that I'm sure _you_ would have made if you weren't so. . . so. . ."

"Human?" Kagome finished for him, before heading back up the stairs.

"Where are you going!" Inuyasha demanded. "We aren't through here!"

Kagome shrugged. "I just figured I should get my backpack now, seeing as I am sure that you are going to try to bring me back to the past." _Also it wouldn't help to be long gone before Kogajiin came back from the university. _She trusted her mother could take her grandfather's place and come up with _some_ outlandish excuse for her absence until she got back.

Inuyasha had no retort for that one. "You mean. . . you're just going to come back? Like that?" Inuyasha asked.

Kagome nodded, and Inuyasha faltered. "Oh." He said simply. "Okay then. I'll wait down here."

Kagome tossed her mom a look that clearly said _don't mention Kogajiin_ and went upstairs to pack for her other life on the other side of the well. When she got to her room, she sighed and collapsed on her bed.

Batman had nothing on her.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Naraku wasn't one to think of the past, but it seemed now, more and more, that the past was all that he could occupy his mind with. He found that he was steeped in thoughts of what if, and if I had, and he found that he was often times left alone and confused with no answers and a headache caused by trying to untangle the inner workings of insanity.

_What would have happened if I had never heard of the Shikon no Tama?_ An impossibility, to be certain. He would have heard of it – if not when he had, then eventually. Children were weaned on stories of the sacred jewel that could grant all wishes, so it really only a matter of time before the story would have reached his ears.

_What would have happened if I had been the one to go to Kikyo the first time, instead of sending that bastard Rasetsu_? Well, he had known that Inuyasha had been with Kikyo; he had known that Inuyasha would have protected Kikyo. If he had gone, he would have been prepared for the fight and might have won. But then, it was also possible that he would have died trying instead.

_What would have happened if he had warned Rasetsu about Inuyasha?_ Rasetsu had always been much stronger as Onigumo. Rasetsu would have had a much better chance of winning, especially if he had stormed the village with his band, rather than go by himself. Rasetsu would have had a much higher rate of success, and would have probably succeeded in stealing the Shikon no tama. Then Naraku would not be Naraku, but rather, he would still be Onigumo, the evil bandit with the spider on his back.

_What if I hadn't met Kikyou as a wounded man?_ It was not the first time he had thought it, and it would not be the last, either. _What if I had met her as a man of virtue and goodness?_ Now that was a thought that he rarely let rest long in his head. . . he was never a good man, and he never truly understood the meaning of virtue, so the entire precipice of the thought was irrational.

_What if Inuyasha hadn't been in the picture_? He didn't like to think on that one too long either, for even though it was one of the few questions that he did know the answer too, he had a sneaking suspicion that if it hadn't been Inuyasha, it just would have been someone else – and he would be exactly where he was today, wondering all the what ifs he could think of.

_What if that girl. . . Kagome. . . hadn't awoken Inuyasha?_ Now that was a question to which he truly had no idea of the answer.

_If Kagome hadn't awoken Inuyasha, the jewel would have died with her_. No, he didn't believe that. He believed that the jewel, the soul sucking incubus it was, would always find a way to make it's way back to the ones who deserved it the least._ If Kagome hadn't awoken Inuyasha, Kikyou couldn't have come back to him. _That wasn't true either. It was entirely circumstantial that Urasue had resurrected Kikyou around the time Inuyasha had been awakened. _But he might have not heard rumors of her reawakening._ Another impossibility. Kikyo was beautiful and powerful, and where ever she went, people spoke of her magnificence for years to come.

_If Kagome hadn't awoken Inuyasha. . ._ nothing would have really changed. Maybe the players, but other than that. . . nothing. He would still be spiteful, Kikyou would still be vengeful, and the jewel would have still ended up in his possession.

_The jewel. ._ . Naraku reached in to his robes, and pulled out a nearly flawless purple sphere. Though it was discolored, Naraku thought it was even more beautiful had it been the untainted pink it was created to be. And it would be even more beautiful once it was finished. . . Naraku ran his thumb over it, and felt the indention where one shard -–one shard – was missing.

Where the last shard was, he had no idea. But he did know that it would be he who found it. . . no one else.

And then he would grant Akago – the small infant he had created to hold Onigumo's heart – his last wish. After all, Naraku reasoned with a masochistic sneer, it was only proper that he grant such a loyal son his final desire.

But what will happen then? Naraku wondered.

_Sometimes_, Naraku thought as he strode at a fast pace through the dark corridors of his darker citadel, his mind in a state of paradoxal confusion_, it is just better to not wonder. _

Not entirely used to Kagome being so willing to return with him when he wanted, Inuyasha wasn't sure how to react when she had simply agreed to go with him. But he did know that she was certainly annoying him with how slowly she was getting prepared to journey to the past.

"How long do you think she is going to be?" He asked Kon, and felt a claw scratch at his ankles. Looking down, he saw Kagome's fat cat – what was it's name? Miyu? No. . . – trying to grab his attention. Obligingly, Inuyasha knelt down and picked up the obese feline.

Kon shrugged. "She normally only takes a little while. . . ten minutes, twenty tops." Kon finished rinsing and putting away the dishes that Souta had left out when he had gone over to his friend's house down the street from the shrine to play video games."But then, she'll probably want to take a quick bath –"

"No bath." Inuyasha insisted quickly, knowing how long Kagome liked to linger in the comfort of the warm water.

"-But I think that this time she might forgo it and just wash her face instead." Kon finished, unfettered that Inuyasha had interrupted her.

The tap water turned on in the bathroom, and Inuyasha began to tap his foot erratically against the hard wood floor.

"What is it, Inuyasha?" Kon asked, drying her hands on a kitchen towel that matched her apron perfectly. "Why are you in such a hurry to leave? I mean, you normally don't like to waster time, but this is extreme even for you."

Inuyasha twitched a shoulder. "I just don't like being in this house right now." He explained, scratching behind one of Buyo's ears. "That's all." He assured her.

"Why?" Kon asked, taking the kitchen towel to the table to begin dusting that.

Inuyasha thought about ignoring her question, but decided that she had done nothing to deserve his crudeness. "Because it smells like Naraku. . ."

Kon raised on hand to wave away Inuyasha's worries. "Oh, is that all?" Kon asked with a smile. "Bacon and cheap cologne?" She gestured towards the countertop. "That air freshener in there should clear that up in no time, but in the mean time, why don't you go and wait outside for Kagome?" She suggested. "I'm sure that if that daughter of mine knows that you are getting so impatient you can't even wait inside, she'll go faster."

Inuyasha nodded his head, seeing the logic. "Okay then. I'll just go yell at her from outside, then." He said, heading towards the kitchen door.

"Bye Inuyasha!" Kon waved with a smile, before muttering "such a nice boy, really. . ."

But even with his sensitive hearing, Inuyasha couldn't hear Kon over his own yells. "Hurry up, Kagome!" Inuyasha groaned as he picked up her yellow back pack – a sore sight, for sure, and he would have been more than willing to shred it to pieces for her. "We need to get going now!"

Kagome sighed, and finished washing her face. "I'm coming!" She yelled out the window of the bathroom and in to the courtyard were Inuyasha was waiting not so patiently. "Mom!" She cried out, running down the stairs two at a time. "I'm leaving now!" She was about to throw open the door when her mother placed one hand lightly over it. Kagome looked at her, and wasn't surprised when she saw worry in her eyes.

"Kagome, dear." Her mother began quietly, reaching in to the front pocket of her apron to pull out a small trinket. Cradling it in her hands, she continued. "Are you going to be alright?"

Kagome smiled. "I always am, mom." She assured her with a hug. "Don't you worry about me."

Kon sniffed and held out her hand. "This is for you."

Kagome stared in awe at the pretty charmed bracelet, and wrapped it twice around her wrist before tying it off. "Thank you, mother!" She exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her.

Kon shook her head. "Oh no, it wasn't me. Kogajiin gave it to me this morning, he told me to give it to you."

Kagome stared at it in awe, twisting it in the light so that she could examine it more throughly. A glimmer of light caught and held her eyes.

"He said it was called _Kongōosooha_." Kon explained. "It's supposed to protect you from evil."

"_Kongōosōoha_?" Kagome repeated the word, trying to remember where she had heard that word before. "What is that stone?" And why would Kogajiin think that I needed protection from evil?

Kon shrugged. "I don't know. But when I went to bed, I saw him making it out of some thread and those jewels. . . I think that they are rhinestones or something."

Kagome stared closer at it. . . are they diamonds? No, that wasn't possible. Where would Kogajiin get unshaped diamonds like that?

"Kagome!" Inuyasha screamed impatiently. "If you don't get out here, I'm gonna make you walk everywhere!"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Inuyasha has resorted to threatening me with exercise, so I had better get going."

Kon nodded. "Sure." She said, hugging Kagome on last time. "Promise me that you won't take off that bracelet."

Kagome nodded, understanding her mother's fear for her safety in the ages of warfare and violence. Understanding that her mother needed something to believe in. "I promise." She swore.

"Kagome!"

"Coming!" Kagome called back, giving her mother one last squeeze. "I love you mom."

And then, Kagome was gone, leaving Kon waving goodbye at the door. "Be safe." She whispered, even though she knew that Kagome could no longer hear her.

It was a cold morning in Sengoku Judai, but then again, in a world without central heating, it was cold most mornings. The fact that it was only early March only helped the cold and made it so that the mists took longer to burn off.

But Miroku, who at the time was busy pounding away, trying to fix the roof of a villager who had the grave misfortune of being attacked by demons, felt nothing of the cold, but only the sweat on his back.

He was busy debating the pros and cons of removing his shirt – on the plus side, he would be cooler, but on the con side, he had a much greater chance of getting a splinter or even getting hypothermia. He was trying to remember what herbs helped cure hypothermia when he heard the _click click_ of Sango's _geta _sandals on the hard dirt ground of the village square. Immediately, he moved to remove his shirt, the pros now far outwighing the cons.

_If Kagome hadn't awoken Inuyasha, she would have never had the opportunity to fall in love with him. . . _ Miroku was struck still as the thought hit him, the thought in a voice that sounded remarkably like Naraku's. His palm, wrapped around the hem of his robes and frozen in the act of removing them, began to burn painfully, the curse in his hell hand recognizing that it's master was near.

Turning his head, he was surprised that the feeling of evil came not from the east, as it normally did, but from the west, where Inuyasha's forest lay. _What could be over there that Naraku would want? _Miroku wondered. _Sesshoumaru's land is there, and Naraku has made it quiet clear that he fears Sesshoumaru. _

Suddenly, a thought hit him. _Didn't Inuyasha go to get Kagome? _He wondered. Remembering Inuyasha mentioning something like that, he suddenly knew _exactly_ what Naraku wanted in the west.

When he scanned the forest near the well, there was no fear in his eyes . . . only blind hatred that the fiend had struck now, when they were at there weakest – Sango was still recovering from the loss of Kohaku, and Inuyasha and Kagome would be caught at unawares if the simply came out of the well now.

_Unless he could get there in time to warn them._

"Miroku?" Sango's voice questioned from beneath the hut. "Are you planning on taking off that shirt anytime soon, or are you just planning on torturing those girls forever?" She jabbed her thumb behind her, where a flock of village maidens were gasping and cooing in awe.

Miroku looked to Sango, who was busy tapping her foot impatiently on the ground, and wondered why _she _didn't feel it. _Maybe her spiritual connection with Naraku ended when Naraku killed Kohaku. _But now was not the time to be wondering about why or why not the demon slayer could not sense the most powerful demon of all. Miroku hurried to the side of the hut, and jumped as far out as he could to avoid landing on Sango or anyone else who might have been in his blindspot. He landed awkwardly on his ankle, still sore from the recent battle with Byakuya, the ninth detachtment of Naraku, and orgami demon created to replace Kagura after she had outlived her usefulness. Though Miroku hadn't been in a fight with Byakuya, the incarnation had aided a weak demon that Miroku _had _been in a fight with by creating fog and illusions to confuse Miroku; and by doing so, giving the weak youkai he had been fighting the oppertunity to attack. Miroku had barely leapt out of the way in time to avoid a fatal blow to the gut, but in his haste had twisted his ankle.

Either his face was showing more than he wanted it to or he had begun to favor his sore ankle, because when he went to pull out his shajoku from it's place half buried in the dirt, Sango wrapped her hand around his cursed one, striking him more alert than Naraku ever could.

Miroku immediately tried to recoil, but Sango's grip – the grip of a woman who slew demons – held true. "Miroku?" She asked, trying to read what wasn't in his eyes. Though she wasn't one to normally ask questions, Miroku knew that even he would have been curious if she had been the one to start acting as oddly as he had.

Miroku wrapped his fist more tightly around his shajoku and pulled his hand – and with his hand, his shajoku – out of Sango's hold. "Let's go." He said, and when he didn't hear her footsteps behind him, he gave her one backwards glance. "Naraku is there."

And then they both began to run.


End file.
